Blackjack Advanced Strategy

Because basic strategy is based on a player's point total, and the dealer's visible card, basic strategy plays can often be incorrect. This is because a player may achieve different point totals with different cards, and a different number of cards. A more complete strategy would require a much more complex table, which is why the table above is named 'basic.'

Advanced strategies take into account a player's hand composition (number of cards and their individual values). For example, the basic strategy is to hit a total of 16 against a dealer 10 card. However if a player's total of 16 contains a 4 or a 5 card (such as a three card hand of 9 5 2), the correct stategy is actually to stand. Another example is a player's total of 12 against a dealer 4. Basic strategy says to stand, but if the player's total of 12 contains a 10 card (such as 10 2) then the correct action is actually to hit.

Advanced strategy can also include information from other players' hands. For example, if you have 10 3 and the dealer is showing a 2, the correct strategy is to stand, even with the ten you do have. But if other players are showing many tens, the correct strategy may actually be to hit. These slight variations in play help reduce the house edge.

 

Using other players for extra profit

Many players do not realise when they have profitable hands, or are not willing to double or split because of the cost of an extra bet. Other players will overestimate the value of a hand because they do not understand the mathematics behind the basic strategy. Because of this, a cunning player may be able to play another player's double or splits by paying the bet himself, or even getting another player to pay to play one of the players own split cards.

Consider a pair of sevens against a dealer 3. This hand favors the house whether the sevens are split or not, but the proper strategy is to split because 14 loses twice as often as a 7. Now if a smart player is able to offer one of the sevens to someone else, he is actually getting rid of a bad hand, and only having to play one hand of 7 against a 3, instead of two.

This can also be applied backwards. A person may be tempted not to split a pair of 2s against a dealer 5 or 6 card. In this situation a cunning player would offer to pay the bet and play one of the split hands, because 2 versus a 6 actually favors the player. Sometimes a player won't have enough money to split a pair of eights against a 7 or 6, and this is also a good situation to offer to bank the bet, since an 8 is favored to win against a 7 or 6. A cunning player will often 'team up' with other players so they feel obligated to split pairs, even tens.

A smart player can also get in on other players' doubles. Most casinos offer the player the ability to 'double for less.' That is, they are allowed to double down without matching their full original bet. If a player does this on a winning hand (any basic strategy double down hand is always a winning hand), a smart player can 'get in' on the double by offering to pay the rest of the double amount. A common situation is 11 versus a dealer 10. Most people prefer to only double for a small amount, a long term player should always offer to front the rest of the double bet, because in the long run a profit will be made.

If a player prefers to hit instead of double (because he is worried about receiving a low card) in some rare situations it is actually correct to offer not only to pay the double, but to also pay the player back their bet should the hand lose. This is most common with 11 versus a 6. When a player doubles on 11 versus a dealer 6 they win over twice as often as they lose, so it is okay to lose the double bet and pay out the player his original bet. This strategy works extremely well because from the other player's point of view, they cannot lose. And from the cunning player's point of view he is prepared to lose two bets because he has the knowledge that he will win a single bet over twice as often, in the long run.

 

Shuffle tracking

There are well-established techniques other than card counting that can swing the advantage of casino 21 towards the player. All such techniques are based on the value of the cards to the player and the casino, as originally conceived by Edward O. Thorp. One such technique, mainly applicable in multi-deck games (aka shoes), involves tracking groups of cards (aka slugs, clumps, packs) during the play of the shoe, following them through the shuffle and then playing and betting accordingly when those cards come into play from the new shoe. This technique, which is admittedly much more difficult than straight card counting and requires excellent eyesight and powers of visual estimation, has the additional benefit of fooling the casino people who are monitoring the player's actions and the count, since the shuffle tracker could be, at times, betting and/or playing opposite to how a straightforward card counter would.

Arnold Snyder's articles in Blackjack Forum magazine were the first to bring shuffle tracking to the general public. His book, The Shuffle Tracker's Cookbook, was the first to mathematically analyze the player edge available from shuffle tracking based on the actual size of the tracked slug.

Other legal methods of gaining a player advantage at blackjack include a wide variety of techniques for gaining information about the dealer hole-card or the next card to be dealt.

 

Variants

Spanish 21 provides players with many liberal blackjack rules, such as doubling down any number of cards (with the option to 'rescue', or surrender only one wager to the house), payout bonuses for five or more card 21's, 6-7-8 21's, 7-7-7 21's, late surrender, and player blackjacks always winning and player 21's always winning, at the cost of having no 10 cards in the deck (though there are jacks, queens, and kings). With correct basic strategy, a Spanish 21 almost always has a higher house edge than a compariable BlackJack game. Another casino game similar to blackjack is Pontoon.

Certain rules changes are employed to create new variant games. These changes, while attracting the novice player, actually increase the house edge in these games. Double Exposure Blackjack is a variant in which the dealer's cards are both face-up. This game increases house edge by paying even-money on blackjacks and players losing ties. Double Attack Blackjack has very liberal blackjack rules and the option of increasing one's wager after seeing the dealer's up card. This game is dealt from a Spanish shoe, and blackjacks only pay even money.

The French and German variant "Vingt-et-un" (Twenty-and-one) and "Siebzehn und Vier" (Seventeen and Four) don't include splitting. An ace can only count as eleven, but two aces count as a Blackjack. This variant is seldom found in casinos, but in private circles and barracks.

Chinese Blackjack is played by many in Asia, having no splitting of cards, but with other card combination regulations.

Another variant is Blackjack Switch, a version of blackjack in which a player is dealt two hands and is allowed to switch cards. For example, if the player is dealt 10-6 and 10-5, then the player can switch two cards to make hands of 10-10 and 6-5. Natural blackjacks are paid 1:1 instead of the standard 3:2, and a dealer 22 is a push.

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